Typically, computers systems provide an address space that is much larger than the physical memory contained within the computer system. This larger address space is often referred to as virtual memory or virtual address space. The virtual address space is often divided into blocks called pages. For pages to be quickly accessible by application and system software, the pages must be loaded into the computer's physical memory. When pages are loaded into physical memory, they are mapped from the virtual address space into the physical address space (e.g. the address space available in random access memory and cache). Such address mapping is referred to as virtual address resolution. Often, the mapping information for a set of virtual memory addresses is stored in a fast memory called a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). Thus, TLBs facilitate quick mapping of virtual addresses to physical addresses.
Many computer systems allow different software programs to use different page sizes. For example, one software application may use a 16 Kb page size, while another software application uses a 4 Kb page size. Providing support for variable page sizes allows software to use physical memory more efficiently. For example, when software applications use page sizes that are too big, address space is wasted. Moreover, when software applications use page sizes that are too small, the TLB is very large; thus requiring a large area to accommodate the TLB. Therefore, for computer systems that support variable page sizes, there is a need for TLBs that efficiently store address mapping information for multiple page sizes.